Shane Beamer describes his experience with SEC Netflix documentary filming

South Carolina coach Shane Beamer welcomed a documentary crew in his locker room this past season as part of a venture with Netflix. The Gamecocks were one of a number of teams featured in Any Given Saturday, set to premiere this month.

Beamer opened up on the opportunity in a recent press conference after fall practice. He talked about the access he allowed and what he hoped the program will get from it.

“I hope (recruits) were watching it,” he said. “I thought it was really good. They spent a lot of time around our program. I don’t know about the other schools and what that did, but from listening to the Netflix guys, I think they really enjoyed working with us because of the the access that we gave them. They were very respectful of things that I’ve always said of maybe I’ve told the players, ‘There’ll never be cameras in this meeting,’ so maybe I don’t want an exception for you guys. They were very respectful of that, but we gave them a ton of access because we don’t have anything to hide necessarily.”

South Carolina is coming off of a 9-4 finish to the regular season and challenged for a College Football Playoff spot but ultimately fell short of the field. The Gamecocks are considered a favorite to challenge for a spot again this season thanks to the return of players like quarterback LaNorris Sellers.

Beamer has been the coach at South Carolina since 2021, compiling a 29-22 record in that span. He’s led the Gamecocks to a bowl game in three out of four seasons, but one only once in those trio of trips.

The son of former Virginia Tech coach Frank Beamer, Shane looks to possibly be building he own program. Part of that is giving open access for recruits, and Beamer hopes the Netflix documentary can help attract players to South Carolina.

“What you see is what you get with us,” he said. “I thought they were good. …They spent a lot of time with the team obviously, but away from the facility as well. Whether it be at my house — I think one game they sat with Emily at the A&M game. They came to one of Hunter’s flag football practices and I left and had to go recruiting. They didn’t go recruiting with me, but followed me to the airport.

“Ultimately, they can make the show how they want it. But I think the relationship was good and certainly if I’m a recruit and I watch it from a South Carolina standpoint, there’d be a lot to really like about this program because we try to give them a very inside look at what this program’s about and the people in this program also.”